"Commentary from P.M. Carpenter"

July 07, 2014

RedState's Erickson picks up the gauntlet of imbecility

Hilarious.

Earlier this morning I urged the GOP base to do its Constitutional duty and demand that the House seek impeachment proceedings against President Obama for his failure to "follow his oath of office and faithfully execute the laws of our country," as Speaker Boehner so neatly indicts. If Boehner's accusation has merit, or even if Boehner is only feigning that his party's accusation has merit--which is the case, although nonetheless an act of profound implications--then quite unambiguously the House's proper Constitutional recourse is impeachment, not a lawsuit.

On the other hand such a maneuver would, of course, be the absolute dumbest political move that House Republicans could make. Just prior to midterms it would alienate independents and "fire up" oddly apathetic Democrats. It could easily cost Republicans the House. It would, in the annals of cretinous political tactics, be the mother of them all. And that, in turn, as everyone knows, is why the speaker smartly refuses to do his "duty."

My urging, therefore, was but a prod, a joke, a lighted-hearted, tongue-in-cheek poke at the GOP's pretensions. No one on that dark side, I thought, could really be such an imbecile as to himself urge that Speaker Boehner sabotage his party's midterm prospects by bumbling ahead with impeachment proceedings; no one, that is, until I visited RedState.com's Erick Erickson:

227 years ago, when the founders of the nation set about drafting the constitution, they gave the House of Representatives the exclusive power to initiate revenue bills and impeach the Executive. That the House would sue the President over his use of executive power is an indication that its leadership no more values their own powers under constitution than the President they sue....

If the Republican leaders in the House are too chicken to use their constitutional powers to rein in the President, they should just call it a day and go home.

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RedState's Erickson picks up the gauntlet of imbecility

Hilarious.

Earlier this morning I urged the GOP base to do its Constitutional duty and demand that the House seek impeachment proceedings against President Obama for his failure to "follow his oath of office and faithfully execute the laws of our country," as Speaker Boehner so neatly indicts. If Boehner's accusation has merit, or even if Boehner is only feigning that his party's accusation has merit--which is the case, although nonetheless an act of profound implications--then quite unambiguously the House's proper Constitutional recourse is impeachment, not a lawsuit.

On the other hand such a maneuver would, of course, be the absolute dumbest political move that House Republicans could make. Just prior to midterms it would alienate independents and "fire up" oddly apathetic Democrats. It could easily cost Republicans the House. It would, in the annals of cretinous political tactics, be the mother of them all. And that, in turn, as everyone knows, is why the speaker smartly refuses to do his "duty."

My urging, therefore, was but a prod, a joke, a lighted-hearted, tongue-in-cheek poke at the GOP's pretensions. No one on that dark side, I thought, could really be such an imbecile as to himself urge that Speaker Boehner sabotage his party's midterm prospects by bumbling ahead with impeachment proceedings; no one, that is, until I visited RedState.com's Erick Erickson:

227 years ago, when the founders of the nation set about drafting the constitution, they gave the House of Representatives the exclusive power to initiate revenue bills and impeach the Executive. That the House would sue the President over his use of executive power is an indication that its leadership no more values their own powers under constitution than the President they sue....

If the Republican leaders in the House are too chicken to use their constitutional powers to rein in the President, they should just call it a day and go home.